Liz Allen: Winter storm of '44 packed a punch

LizAllen

January 27, 2013 12:16 AM

LizAllen

January 27, 2013 12:16 AM

E-mails from my family blew in as the lake-effect snow piled up: How many inches did we get? How much was coming?

Erieites are proud to weather winter's worst, and we like to dust off stories about our most memorable snowstorms. I know that the largest snowfall in a 24-hour period, 26.5 inches, fell Dec. 11-12, 1944, but I didn't know much more until I read Dave Whiting's e-mail:

"In a recent issue of the Tampa Tribune, an article mentioned the recent lake-effect snowstorm that you are experiencing in the Erie area. It mentioned recent snowfalls approached those of the winter of 1944. I well remember that winter as I was a junior in high school in Fairview. ...

"During the Christmas vacation, many highways and roads were closed due to the snowfall. For example, Route 20 just west of Fairview was closed for approximately two weeks. The highway depressions had drifted over due to snow fences not being installed where they normally had been installed in previous years. The snowplows of that day were unable to move the snow and the Army was brought in to manually shovel it and clear the pass. Until that was accomplished, there was no road traffic, no school buses and no school.

"At the same time, a local pilot named 'Louie' Raub (or Robb) made a name for himself by flying feed and other supplies to local farmers using a ski-equipped light airplane. Many farms were isolated due to the blocked roads.

"That was some winter! One I will always remember. Oh, I forgot to mention the temperature today in Tampa will be in the mid 70s and there isn't a snowflake in view."

Dave, 84, wasn't rubbing it in with his comment about Tampa's temperature. He likes snow. He and his family skied for more than 50 years, until he and his wife, Norma, moved to Florida in 1979.

As a kid, he wasn't happy when Christmas vacation was extended by two weeks in 1944 due to the bad weather. He liked his classes and he liked walking to school on country roads and catching sight of Lake Erie. "The lake used to freeze over solid. From the Pennsylvania line to Ontario, no water was visible," he says.

It's also awesome to see Lake Erie from the air, says Dave, who learned to fly at 16, served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot and later worked for Pan Am.

I looked up the news coverage of the Dec. 11-12, 1944, storm on microfilm. The Dec. 11 front-page forecast said: "Rather cold" and the story predicted: "City to Escape Midwest Storm." The next-day headline screamed: "Storm Isolates City."

I told Dave I'd mail him copies of the 1944 storm coverage; it should be there when he and his wife return from their two-week Caribbean cruise. He really wasn't rubbing it in!